9:00pm: the wind-down starts (whether you're ready or not)

It's 9:00pm. We're starting — gently, but we're starting.

First, the worries. Every one of them gets written down on the park-it list: the email, the bill, the conversation you're rehearsing. Written down, they wait outside the bedroom. Your mind can let go of what paper is holding.

Then: lights lower, phone charges in another room, one slow thing — a shower, a stretch, a boring and wonderful page of a book. Nothing stimulating. Nothing that glows.

In the morning you'll rate your energy for me, one to ten, no judgement. Over a few weeks we'll see the pattern together: what the late caffeine did, what the early night gave back. Small experiments, one at a time.

Screens down. Tomorrow-you says thanks.